Imagine a world where you are always connected to the Net. A world where you can rid yourself of your 7 pound laptop its heavy hard drive and all the software and applications installed on it. Imagine not having to ensure you have the latest version of your office productivity suite, web browser, CRM app, etc. This imaginary world is closer to reality than we think and these tiny startups are providing the code and tools to get us there quickly.

Look at Windows Live and Google Personalized. Look at the browser-based word processing startup (writely) that Google just acquired. Before we know it, we will be able to access all of our content (structured and unstructured data) and services (applications) remotely from the Web. We will be able to carry out this interaction from any device, anywhere in the world, and we will be able to interact with the network regardless of who we are or our relationship with the Net and other constituents on the Net.

Take Sun's Sun Ray Server Software thin client concept to the Net and allow the Net to be the server and allow access from any device with connectivity to the Net.

The only remaining service left to be figured out is our identity. That is, an open, utility-based, hosted, and online clearinghouse that controls the authorization and authentication of our content and services. Simply, who we are, what we have access to, and the credentials we need to "trust" that what we are accessing is ours and that we control who has access to our content and services.